Exceptionally, we have decided to devote the cover to a film we have not yet viewed. To justify our choice we were committed to delivering an interview. We wished to speak to the actor who plays the principal character in the film. It’s Roy Dupuis. The film : Jack Paradise (Montreal Nights), by Gilles Noël, already distinguished, particularly for Mistaken Identity. The Roy Dupuis we encountered was completely removed from his status as a sex symbol. Honest, sincere, generous, reliable, he submits to the sometimes thankless task of being interviewed, while awaiting the release of the film in February 2004 .

How did this venture into the world of cinema begin?

You could say that it had its origins in the theatre. It goes back to the time when I was a fifth form student. I was living in Sainte-Rose (Laval) with my mother who was a piano teacher. One day, one of her former pupils and her boyfriend came to visit. As they didn’t want to spend the evening in the house, we went to see Ariane Mnouchkine’s film Molière. Coming out of the cinema, I knew then what I wanted to do. At school I was studying the pure sciences. And yet, on that day, after seeing an ordinary screening of a film, I opted for the theatre. A girlfriend and I staged Molière’s The Hypochondriac. By a combination of circumstances I ended up at the National Theatre School where I stayed for four years.

And then you embarked on a career in television and cinema. Between these two modes of expression, the theatre and the cinema, which one makes you, as an actor, more comfortable and self-confident?

I must say that I miss the theatre, particularly rehearsals. Because that’s an incredibly enlightening creative process. Stage acting allows an actor to explore different avenues, to fly off in several directions, to see the different facets of a character. In the cinema there’s not enough time to establish those particular ties. Not forgetting that, in the theatre, there’s a pressure that I find healthy and full of energy. On the other hand, in the cinema there’s a greater appreciation of the immediacy of filmmaking. In the theatre, this is almost impossible to convey onstage.

You were very young when you began your film career, and what is more you work with renowned directors. This distinction, along with not insignificant physical attributes, gained you the status of a sex-symbol from the outset. How do you come to terms with this duality?

Indeed, there is the actor and there is the public image. Though I do go to a great deal of effort to ensure that the image the public has of me doesn’t misrepresent my real intentions. But, at the same time, this depends on who is doing the looking. Sometimes, a first look, a first impression stays lodged in the collective imagination.

On that subject, I suppose you decline the majority of the roles you’re offered.

It’s a question of the art, of course, but also of the money. Often you are forced, particularly at the beginning of a career, to accept roles that later on you would have refused. But very soon I got used to reading the screenplays before accepting the part. I even turned some down. There’s the character, of course, but also the story. It has to interest me, even if the character is like one I’ve played before. In a sense, an actor is a servant. He must be at the service of the director “emotionally” and especially intellectually. Once I’ve read a screenplay I’ve been offered that I like, it’s essential that I meet the director so that we can share ideas about the character. The greatest quality of a director is to make sure that the characters convey the narrative, the story he wants to tell. For my part, once the costume is on and the character is established, my ideas become clear and precise. Dialogue is possible.

Depending on the film, does a character ever stay with you long after shooting?

Absolutely. Sometimes there are very demanding characters who won’t leave you. One of these was the one I played in Being at Home with Claude by Jean Baudin. Yves haunted me for a long time.

In Jack Paradise (Montreal Nights), your latest film where you play the lead, the action takes place in an era you never knew. From where did you draw your inspiration to do the job successfully?

I watched an enormous number of archive films. What I discovered and what I had no idea of was the madness that prevailed in the nocturnal world in this era. It’s as if the restrictions imposed by the powerful religious influence of the time collapsed once night fell. The night-owls had a voracious appetite for life. Once the lights were lit, they became really wild.

The nocturnal world was also a social environment where racial barriers no longer existed.

That’s quite correct.  Jack Paradise, the main character, is fanatical about jazz music, the music of Black America. From the beginning of his career he had a deep admiration for the people who were a major factor in the rise in popularity of the genre. In order to create a credible character I followed a process of intellectualisation. I used a method of structured thinking. From the screenplay I already understood about his values, his lifestyle, his social and artistic dynamic. Jack is an artiste, a musician, a social extremist. That allowed me to take my character a step further, to make him rather daring. Jack is also a man of few words, an introvert. He expresses himself through the piano.

So you let him develop?

Indeed. And little by little I allowed his ideas, his movements, his questions to settle down. It was then that the character took control of me. I may add that I didn’t feel I had to watch the actors of this era. On the other hand, it’s possible that an old film that I’ve happened to have seen may have left a subconscious influence on me.

As far as feature films are concerned, you’ve worked predominantly in Canada. Does filming somewhere else appeal to you?

It’s quite simple: I’m at home here. This is where I feel at my best. I love to travel, but for the moment I would like to work in an auteur film, in this part of the world. Of course there’s Jack Paradise, and also Pierre Houle’s Monica-la-mitraille (where I have a small part) and Manners of Dying from a short story by Yann Martel, which is Jeremy Peter Allen’s first feature film; I play the lead role in this film which was shot in Quebec, in English.

That’s what you really want to do.

Absolutely. Auteur cinema is really what does it for me ….